Five decades of relational psychotherapy in Westchester County, New York. Certified in Gestalt, Internal Family Systems, and Intimacy from the Inside Out. Author of When the Therapist Is Ill.
Welcome. While practicing psychotherapy and counseling for fifty years, I have also been a lifelong learner in my field. After earning my Master's Degree in Social Work and a Post-Master's Certificate in Advanced Clinical Social Work, I completed a three-year training program and became a certified Gestalt Therapist in 1996. I then became certified in Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Intimacy from the Inside Out (IFIO) for couples. All these models are integrated into how I practice.
Over the years, I specialized in working with families, particularly parents and their children with special needs, and I wrote articles and newsletters for those families. While I no longer work with children, I continue to work with intergenerational family concerns. This area holds a particular place in my heart.
Across my career, I have worked with individuals and couples to improve interpersonal relationships, heal from trauma, and adapt to major life transitions. More recently, two colleagues and I co-facilitate workshops on Embracing Our Elderhood, and we hold regular monthly Continuity Groups for IFS-informed elder therapists.
I have had a long-standing interest in working with people living with illness. Having lived through breast cancer myself, I bring a particular sensitivity to this terrain. No two illnesses are the same, and no two experiences are alike. Each person and their situation is unique.
Because I have worked with people across the stages, phases, and cycles of life, I have come to appreciate the range of issues that arise in our lifetimes, and the strength and courage it takes to seek help and to be with our own vulnerabilities. I passionately believe that each of us holds the power and capacity to grow into our highest and best selves, held within the safety of the therapeutic relationship.
I have deep respect for my clients, wherever they are on their life's path.
— RobertaFor therapists experiencing illness, and for well therapists and supervisors who want to be better attuned when working with an ill therapist.
Talks and workshops for clinical institutes, societies, and graduate programs. See the Speaking page.
Focused short-term work with individuals and couples.
Our humanity is not outside the work. It is part of the ground of the work.
A relational guide for therapists facing what training rarely addresses. Drawing on five decades of clinical practice and her own experience living through illness.